


Those Nights

by MeteoraWrites



Series: Here's to High School and Hot Guys [3]
Category: Fear the Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Anxiety, Both our boys need a hug, Cuddling & Snuggling, Drug Addiction, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Getting Together, Injury Recovery, M/M, Music, Mutual Pining, Sneaking Out, Teenage Drama, Touch Starved Troy Otto, Trick Flufffest 2k19, and they get it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 20:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19027435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeteoraWrites/pseuds/MeteoraWrites
Summary: “Things between me and Troy are complicated,” he admits with a sigh before stuffing half a cookie in his mouth.“You clearly both like each other, what’s so complicated about that?” she asks with a confused expression.“A lot,” Nick grumbles before stuffing the rest of the cookie in his mouth and chewing.“Whatever,” Alicia says dismissively. “You guys should just kiss and get it over with already.”Nick almost chokes on his cookie and Alicia actually laughs at him for it.“You already kissed him, didn’t you!” she crows, clapping in delight before grabbing another cookie and running out of the room. “Just ask him to be your boyfriend and get it over with already! I’ll cover with mom when you two want to sneak off on dates!”Nick actually does throw a cookie at her for that, which misses and hits the wall to leave a smear of warm chocolate in its wake. He stares at the mess for a long moment before sighing and going to clean it up. It’s going to be a long night.





	Those Nights

It starts about three months after Troy moved to El Sereno. Nick hadn’t been at their secret place that night, and Troy isn’t feeling up to going home to a house that doesn’t feel like his own. Jake tries, he really does, but all they ever talk about is school, court, their father, and how Troy’s mom is doing in the facility she’s in. It’s… Honestly, it’s too damn much right now. And the only thing keeping him sane is the nights he gets to spend in that old dilapidated house with Nick.

He texted the other boy earlier that night asking what he’s up to and got no response, which isn’t out of the ordinary as his mom is a bitch and sometimes takes his phone for no damn reason. And since he wasn’t in school today thanks to more bullshit with court and having to visit his mother today instead of attending afternoon classes he doesn’t know if Nick was there or not.

It makes him a little worried. Okay, more than a little. He doesn’t like feeling worried. It’s bad enough that he’s on edge from being forced to visiting his mother in that facility, seeing her makes him feel a lot of things he didn’t think he could feel anymore; throw in no sign of his best friend on top of that and he’s kind of a wreck.

It’s almost midnight when he sneaks into the backyard of the Clark household. There’s no sign of Travis’ truck in the driveway, or Madison’s car in the garage for that matter, so odd’s are she’s over at his place tonight and Nick and Alicia were left on their own.

It’s ridiculously easy to slip in through Nick’s window, the other boy having left it open a crack to let some fresh air in. Once he’s inside he only needs a moment to spot Nick where he’s curled up on his bed with his back to Troy.and the rest of the room. He’s on top of the blankets, his coat, and jeans still on even though it’s pretty warm tonight.

Stepping carefully around the few random articles of clothing and several books strewn about the floor, Troy makes his way over to Nick’s bed and after a moment's hesitation he reaches out to gently shake Nick’s shoulders. “Hey… Nick… Wake up… Nick...” he says barely above a whisper.

Groaning, Nick rolls onto his back and rubs at his eyes before blinking a few times at the shadowy figure beside his bed. “Troy? What‘re you doing here? Is everything alright?”

Licking his lips, Troy wants to lie and say everything is fine, brush his insecurities off as nothing. He doesn’t. Nick’s good at reading him, almost better at it than Jake even. He can’t get away with hiding his mood if he tries most of the time now that they’ve started to get to know each other. “Not really, can I stay here a while?” he asks, voice a little louder now and giving off just a hint of his high emotions.

Nick studies him in the near darkness for a beat before grunting and sitting up to shuck off his jacket. “Yeah, man, of course, you can. My mom’s out of state for the next four days doing some counselors retreat and it’s just me and Licia.”

Nodding his understanding, Troy crouches down and starts to loosen the laces on his boots. “She take your phone again? I tried texting you earlier.” He aims for the question to come out as off-handed, but he’s fairly certain he sounds like an idiot. Poor Troy, can’t go one night without seeing his best friend. God his father would beat the shit out of him if he saw Troy now. Thank god they haven’t had to actually see him in court yet or he might really lose it.

“Nah, the screen broke. It’s at the game shop by the school getting replaced… Hey, what’s up with you? It’s always nice to see you, man, but you’ve never dropped by like this before,” Nick comments carefully as he tosses his coat across the room somewhere to land with a soft thud of fabric in a dark corner. He’s looking at Troy with clear worry on his face, even in the low light provided by the open window.

“I…” Troy begins, not sure how to explain. He isn’t good with this shit. Fortunately, Nick knows he isn’t and doesn’t rush him as he tries to find the words.

“They made me visit her... today... after we left the courthouse. She…” Looking up, Nick is just watching him with that quiet understanding that always seems to radiate off him whenever Troy needs to talk about his parents. He’s honestly grateful for it. Jake didn’t get treated like he did, he doesn’t understand. Never will. But at least Nick can.

“Dude, you don’t have to tell me, just get over here,” Nick says as he scoots back onto his bed so he’s back to the wall, giving Troy the edge, exactly where he likes to be when he’s feeling trapped or anxious. An easy escape if he needs it.

Swallowing hard and ignoring the prickling sensation in his eyes, Troy stands and kicks off his boots as he drops his own jacket. He doesn’t say anything as he climbs into bed, where Nick instantly wraps his arms around his shoulders and pulls him in close. 

It’s so strange how things are between them. In school, they touch and joke around and act like most high school kids. In private they’re something more. Troy knows enough to know guys don’t interact with each other like this. Or at least he’s pretty sure they don’t. He's seen a few gay couples around, and he doesn’t think he’s gay. But then again he thinks he might have had a crush on his friend Mike back on the ranch… and he’s definitely feeling… something… for Nick. He’s pretty sure Nick feels something too.

Nick pulls him even closer as they settle with both their heads on the single pillow of his bed. Somehow, even though he’s the taller one, Troy is lower on the bed, with Nick’s chin resting atop his head and his own forehead pressed to the other boy's throat as their legs end up tangled together. It’s a little awkward, he has one arm around Nick’s waist and the other bent between them to wrap around his own waist in a way, since he knows it’ll go numb if he tries to slip it under Nick’s frame to wrap around his back like Troy would like to do.

“They’re still dragging shit out with your parents, aren’t they?” Nick asks softly, one hand coming to play with the curls of Troy’s hair while the other gently rubs up and down his upper arm. Troy hasn’t cut his hair since he left the ranch and it’s already longer than it’s ever been in his life. The touches makes Troy shiver and snuggle in a little closer.

“Yeah, Big Otto’s got a good lawyer… As for my mother… She’d given her statement before I arrived at the courthouse today... after we left Jake got a call… She’s getting worse... and...” Saying all this out loud starts to make Troy feel like there’s a hand around his throat and the prickling in his eyes is becoming more of a hot sting. “I can’t see her again, Nicky… I just.. I can’t…’

The hand playing with his hair starts to run through the mess of curls instead of simply twirling them around his fingers, and blunt nails scratch at his scalp lightly as Nick holds him just a little tighter. He doesn’t say anything for a while, just holds Troy close as he struggles to get his breathing to calm down. There are a few tears staining the collar of Nick’s shirt now where Troy’s buried his face against Nick’s neck, and neither says anything about it.

Troy needs this. He needs to get these feelings out and he needs Nick to be the one who’s there for him through it. He’s spent most of his life being told not to express his feelings. Lock his shit down. And when he couldn’t he’d be punished… No, he was abused. He still needs to remind himself that’s what it really was. Just like his stupid therapist tells him every time he thinks something like that.

“You know if I ever don’t come out or text back you can come find me like this, right?” Nick asks after Troy’s settled down in his arms and has hit the level of exhausted where he’s about to sleep but not quite there yet thanks to Nick’s fingers still playing with his hair.

“Yeah, I know… Thanks…” Troy mumbles into Nick’s chest as he nuzzles into him like a tired child.

They fall asleep like that. Holding each other so close they can barely breathe.

When they wake up in the morning Nick has rolled onto his back, taking Troy with him so the other boy is half on top of him with an arm still around his waist and one leg between Nick’s own. Neither wants to get up, but they can hear Alicia puttering around out in the kitchen making herself breakfast, and she will definitely narc on Nick for having someone stay over without permission.

So reluctantly they untangle and Troy slips out Nick’s window as Nick opens his door and loudly proclaims that Alicia had better be making enough food for him too or he’s not giving her a ride to school or helping her clean the house before mom gets home on Monday.

~~~~~

At school that day Troy skips Calculus to hang out with Nick in the library during his study hall. It’s the first time he’s skipped a class since arriving, and when he slides into the chair beside Nick at the table hidden away in the back of the library, Nick gives him a confused look before it morphs into a wide grin.

“Clearly I’m a terrible influence on you,” Nick jokes as he scoots a little closer to the other boy so their arms and legs are touching. “What are you doing here?” The question is asked softly with Nick’s lips close to Troy’s ear and it sends a shiver through him.

“Didn’t feel like listening to Mrs. Fletcher drone on today,” he says with a shrug before turning to pull his journal from his backpack and set it on the table.

“Yeah? Alright, man. Your funeral if you get caught. Skipping 101: don’t stay in the school unless you wanna get caught,” Nick notes lightly as he pulls out his iPod and his English homework to work on.

Troy isn’t at all surprised when Nick holds an earbud out for him, and he pops it in before letting himself lean into the other boy’s side and enjoy the warmth as the first song begins to play. He knows Nick likes a wide variety of music, but whenever he’s listening with Troy he puts on the heavier stuff. It has a kind of calming effect on Troy, and Nick seemed to have that little bit of his personality pegged from the start.

Nick starts to work on his homework and Troy starts to write in his journal just like his therapist told him to and they drift off into their own little world together. All that can be heard is the music in one ear and the scratch of pencils in the other. The others warmth seeping into their side. It’s soothing. A nice little respite from the days' hassles.

Troy has therapy after school, and Nick can’t leave at night or Alicia will notice and tell their mom, so they agree to get together after Troy’s session is done and just hang out at the Clark house. Cal and Glo wanted to go to some party tonight and another tomorrow, but Nick isn’t feeling it. He hasn’t felt like using, and he knows what will happen if he goes to that party with them. Glo will score and want him to be her buddy. And he just can’t.

So when the bell rings they share a lingering glance at one another before parting ways for the next few hours.

~~~~~

When Troy shows up with a busted lip and a bandaged left hand Nick feels his heart drop to his feet. There’s a splatter of blood still on his shoe he didn’t try to clean off and he’s in different clothes than the ones he wore to school that day “What the hell happened to you?” 

Troy just blinks before looking down at his hand then back up. “Guy in my therapist's office freaked out. He had a knife. I stopped him,” Troy explains with a shrug like it’s no big deal before walking past Nick into the house.

“You stopped him? With what, your hand and face?” Nick asks, voice going a little squeaky as it raises. Because he cannot for the life of him figure out how else Troy’s hand got injured otherwise in this scenario.

“Yeah, actually,” Troy confirms as he flops down onto the sofa and looks up at Nick with a smile that’s only a little off thanks to the puffy split lip.

Nick’s isn’t sure if Troy is messing with him or not and he honestly doesn’t know what to make of this situation He’s seen Troy get in a fight before, the guy fights crazy, but this? “Alright, wanna tell me what happened?”

Troy shrugs and sort of sinks down into the couch, his body relaxed in a way Nick’s never seen before, and he instantly knows why. “He was gonna stab Janet, so I got in front of her and when he swung the knife went through my palm,” he explains, easy as telling a story about something mundane like it’s something that happened in class that day. He holds the hand in question up, bandage clear as day as he wiggles his fingers a little, two of them not moving as much as the others.

“You’re serious? That guy could have killed you!” Nick exclaims loudly as he comes to sit beside Troy and grabs his wrist to examine the bandage.

That gets a snort out of Troy. “I’ve taken down bigger guys during militia training. He even tried to punch me after I got his knife away but I headbutted him,” he adds with a chuckle. He lets Nick examine his hand and actually leans into the touch when the other boy’s hand comes up to gently touch at the bruising around the cut on his lower lip. “M’fine, Nicky.”

Nick swallows hard and nods as he takes his hand away. He wants to believe Troy is okay. But seeing him like this makes it a little difficult. “How much pain medication did they put you on?”

That gets something close to a giggle out of Troy, who ends up leaning in close as Nick settles back on the couch beside him. “Sooo much. Jake dropped me off ‘cause I shouldn’t drive till they’re out of my system. I gotta take pills for the next few days an’ go back for a follow up on Wednesday.”

Nodding, Nick lets Troy settle against his side and lets his head rest on Nick’s shoulder. “That’s good… Just… just keep your meds away from me, okay, man? My impulse control is shit…”

Troy nods against Nick’s shoulder and hooks his arm around Nicks, which he sort of hugs to himself. “Relax, Nicky. I know you can’t be around that stuff. Had Jake take ‘em home with him. Doc said I should be good until later tonight with what they gave me. I just gotta go home before midnight.”

Nodding his understanding, Nick looks down at Troy. It’s clear he’s tired. He probably lost a decent amount of blood. Not to mention he’s high as a kite. “You wanna take a nap?”

Humming in thought, Troy shakes his head and actually reaches out to start playing with Nick’s fingers on the arm that he’s taken hostage as his own personal comfort object.”Can we listen to music?”

“I’ll need my arm back for a minute,” Nick tells him with a fond smile, to which Troy sighs as he reluctantly let’s go and lifts his head from Nick’s shoulder. He pats Troy on the shoulder once he’s standing and grins at the eye roll he gets for it before walking around the coffee table to turn on the tv and his Xbox.

When Troy looks confused he just grabs the controller and turns off the lights before returning to his seat beside the other boy. “What are you in the mood for?” he asks as the home screen pops up on the tv and he finds the tile to launch Pandora.

“Just put it on shuffle,” Troy says as he snuggled into Nick’s side, once again trying to claim his arm. Instead, Nick lifts his arm and wraps it around Troy’s shoulder before pulling him so they both end up laying on the couch with Troy against the backrest and Nick on the edge. Troy’s bandaged hand resting over Nick’s heart.

Once they’re settled Nick sets the app to shuffle music from all his stations before tossing the controller aside and letting his arms wrap around Troy properly. The first song to come on is a more mellow one by Hozier that Nick forgets the name of. It works for the atmosphere at the moment.

“Thought you didn’t want your sister knowin’ we do stuff like this?” Troy mumbles into Nick’s shoulder after a while.

“I never said anything like that. Besides, you could have been killed today. I don’t care who catches us cuddling, man. I just wanna be close to you right now,” Nick grumbles right back and holds Troy a little tighter for a moment. The thought of losing Troy puts a sour taste in his mouth and makes something deep inside him want to scream. Sure, when he’s really bad off and using he couldn’t care if he dies. But Troy? The thought of him dying scares Nick more than he thought possible. Almost as much as the thought of losing Alicia.

They stay curled up like that for a while, neither of them moving or speaking for a long time.“Promise me you won’t do something stupid like that again? I don’t want you to die,” Nick eventually whispers. He doesn’t trust his voice to say it any louder without cracking.

“I’ll promise if you promise not to let Gloria and Calvin drag you to that party they were talkin’ about at lunch,” Troy counters as he pushes up onto his elbow to look Nick in the eyes. The glow of the TV makes the blue in his eyes look otherworldly and Nick can’t look away. “You told me situations like that make it hard to stay clean. I don’t want to lose you to all that...”

“I promise,” Nick says after a beat of Troy’s words sinking in. He licks his lips after and doesn't miss the way Troy’s eyes follow the movement.

“Good, I promise too,” Troy says with a nod before his eyes slip down to Nick’s lips again.

He’s about to crack a joke about staring not being polite, but then Troy surges forward and presses his lips to Nick’s own in a sudden, rough kiss. A kiss that has Nick gasping and reaching up to tangle both hands in the curly mess of hair atop Troy’s head as he kisses him back.

He feels Troy take a sharp inhale through his nose, and he’s about to let him go, but then the hand on his chest grabs a fist full of Nick’s shirt and holds on tight as Troy’s lips start to mirror the way Nick’s move against his own.

It’s sloppy at first, but eventually, Nick coaxes Troy into opening his lips and the other boy melts against him as he deepens the kiss. Troy’s a quick learner, and Nick would love to keep this up forever, but eventually, they pull apart for precious, much-needed air and end up with Troy resting with his forehead against Nick’s as they both struggle to regain their breath.

“That…” Troy mumbles, not sure how to finish his thought.

“Was good?” Nick hedges, hoping that Troy doesn’t regret doing that. They’ve been cuddling for months, if he wants more than that Nick is more than willing. But if he’s not… Well, Nick will just have to accept it and deal with how he’s feeling on his own.

“Yeah,” Troy says softly, blue eyes opening to look into warm brown. “Can we-” he starts to ask but is cut off by the buzzing of his phone in his pocket. Grumbling, he pulls it out and holds it up for them both to see a text from Jake saying he’ll be there in 5 minutes to pick him up.

“You wanna continue this tomorrow night? Talk about some things?” Nick asks carefully, not wanting to spook Troy off. From what he knows about how Troy was raised he could be having all kinds of twisted thoughts about how he’s feeling right now and what just happened between them. Or if not now he might later when his head is clearer.

Try pulls a face that Nick can’t quite figure out before leaning in and places another kiss on Nick’s lips. It’s softer than before, and Nick only has a second to return it before Troy pulls away and moves to sit up and climb over Nick. “Text me when you want me over,” he says with a grin as he stands up and stretches.

“Yeah, sure. Have a good night, Troy. Don’t forget to take your meds,” he calls out after the other boy, who’s already headed for the front door.

“Yes, dear!” Troy calls back, tone all mock sweetness. Nick pointedly pretends it doesn’t make his stomach do a little flip or his face feel warm to be called that. “Night, Nicky.”

“G’night, Troy.”

The sound of the front door closing has Nick up off the couch and pacing around the living room as his mind begins to race. Troy kissed him. And he kissed Troy. And he has no idea if that was a drugged up mistake for Troy, or him honest to god having feelings for Nick.

Nick can feel a phantom itch forming under his skin. One that always means bad things for him. So he gets up and heads to the kitchen in search of a distraction while his brain tries to process things.

He’s still overthinking an hour later when Alicia gets back from being at the movies with her friends and finds him sitting in the kitchen with a small mountain of cookies on the table from his stress baking.

“Who died?” Alicia asks as she plops down at the kitchen table and grabs a warm cookie from the pile.

Nick scoffs at her and wants to throw a cookie at her head, but he doesn’t want to waste it. “No one died, Licia. I just needed a distraction.”

“From what? Did your boyfriend dump you or something?” She asks as she stands up and heads to the fridge to get a glass of milk.

That has Nick’s head tilting as he narrows his eyes at her. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Really? Then why did I catch you and Troy cuddling the other night?” She asks innocently before taking a sip from her glass and batting her lashes at him.

Suddenly Nick regrets not putting a lock on his door. Then again there’s no way his mom would allow it with his addiction problems. “Things between me and Troy are complicated,” he admits with a sigh before stuffing half a cookie in his mouth.

“You clearly both like each other, what’s so complicated about that?” she asks with a confused expression.

“A lot,” Nick grumbles before stuffing the rest of the cookie in his mouth and chewing. 

“Whatever,” Alicia says dismissively. “You guys should just kiss and get it over with already.”

Nick almost chokes on his cookie and Alicia actually laughs at him for it. 

“You already kissed him, didn’t you!” she crows, clapping in delight before grabbing another cookie and running out of the room. “Just ask him to be your boyfriend and get it over with already! I’ll cover with mom when you two want to sneak off on dates!”

Nick actually does throw a cookie at her for that, which misses and hits the wall to leave a smear of warm chocolate in its wake. He stares at the mess for a long moment before sighing and going to clean it up. It’s going to be a long night.

~~~~~

When he wakes up the next day it’s close to noon and he has a text from Troy saying he has to take a trip out to the ranch with Jake today, but that he’ll be back in the evening and he’ll have Jake drop him off when they get to town.

The text was sent at 6 am, and from what Troy told him before it’s over 3 hours to drive out there. He has a feeling Troy won’t want to come over after that many hours in a truck with his brother and resigns himself to another day of overthinking shit. He hates overthinking.

Hates being bored too. And manic. He’s definitely manic right now.

So, he throws on some clean clothes and music, stuffed a cookie in his mouth as he passes through the kitchen, and then he starts to clean the house.

Because, honestly, he wants to go find Cal and Glo and get high. And he knows that’s a bad idea. They’re going to a party tonight. One where he is 100% certain Glo will score some heroin. And he’s made such a good run of being clean so far. He hasn’t made it this long before. Almost 4 months and a half months. 

Three of which, being thanks to Troy’s presence in his life.

That thought has him doing everything he can think of to distract himself. Scrubbing the floors. Washing the dishes by hand instead of using the machine. He’s even washing his and Alicia’s laundry, which gets him a bizarre look from his little sister when he walks in and drops the basket on the end of her bed.

He ignores her and moves on to scrubbing the bathroom next. Because god help him, he feels like his skin is crawling and he wants to get high more than he has in a long time. Like, he wants it as much as he wants to kiss Troy again. And one is a lot easier to obtain than the other…

There’s a knocking at the front door that has Nick cursing and yanking off the rubber gloves he’s been wearing as he heads out of the bathroom and down the hall. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming!” he yells as he stomps his way to the door.

When he sees Troy standing on the other side, all smiles despite the way it has to hurt his busted lip, Nick wants to drag him in by the collar and kiss him stupid. He resists though, instead heaving a sigh of relief and standing aside for the other boy to come in. “Hey, man, I wasn’t expecting you until later.”

That gets him a bit of a confused look from Troy, who looks down at his watch then back up to Nick. “It’s almost seven,” he notes before he walks in past Nick. “Everything alright, you seem kinda jittery.”

“Jittery?” Nick parrots as he scratches absently at his arm. He knows he’s manic right now, but he doesn’t think anyone has called him jittery when he’s like this before. It kind of fits.

“Yeah, jittery,” Troy repeats then points to where Nick’s arm is red from him having scratched at it a few other times throughout the day. It’s roughly where the track marks at the inner bend of his elbow are located. The ones he usually keeps covered with either a jacket or a long sleeve shirt. He’s just wearing a t-shirt right now and the marks are kind of obvious against the irritated skin. “What’s wrong?”

Looking down at his arms, Nick slaps his hand over the raw spot and wants to curl in on himself. He hadn’t realized he’d been scratching. Mind focusing on other things. “I… Uh… I’m feeling kind of triggered.... and I really want to use right now,” he admits with a cringe, unable to look Troy in the eyes. He hates the way people look at him when he’s like this.

Troy steps closer, forcing Nick to look up as he invades his personal space. “Is this because I kissed you?”

The question is blunt, and so very unexpected that Nick just kind of stares at him for a moment before the gears in his mind start turning again and he panics. “No! Troy, it’s not… It’s… Okay, maybe it is. But not because I regret it or didn’t like it! I’m kind of freaking out because I don’t know if you meant for it to happen or if you ever would have kissed me if you weren’t high on painkillers! I was worried you would freak out or get mad because I kissed you while you were like that.”

Troy keeps staring Nick in the eye as he rambles, and it’s unclear what he’s thinking until he grabs Nick’s hand where it’s clamped over his arm and pulls it away. He holds Nick’s right hand away as his own right comes up to gently take hold of Nick’s elbow, his thumb soothing over the reddened skin a few times as he speaks. “I kissed you because I wanted to, dumbass. Been thinkin’ about doing it for a while now. So stop freaking out over it and tell me if you want me to kiss you again or you want me to leave.”

It takes a little too long for Nick to process what Troy is saying, and the other boy starts to pull away, only to have Nick reach out and pull him in by the front of his shirt. Their lips meet in a kiss that makes Troy flinch at the impact to his split lip, but he doesn’t pull away, instead, the hand on Nick’s elbow tightens its grip while the other comes up to cup his cheek.

When they part a moment later Troy grins and lets his forehead rest against Nicks. “Still feel jittery or should I kiss you again?”

Nick snorts and smacks him on the arm, but tilts his heads and kisses the other boy again nonetheless. 

He’s about to pull away and ask Troy if he wants to help make dinner when the sound of music starts blasting from the living room. It only takes Nick a moment to realize it’s the opening chords to Girls/Girls/Boys by Panic! At The Disco. 

He lets out a small growl as he breaks the kiss, much to Troy’s confusion, and turns his head away to shout “ALICIA I SWEAR TO GOD I’M GOING TO CUT OFF YOUR HAIR WHILE YOU SLEEP IF YOU DON’T KNOCK IF OFF!”

The sound of the 15-year-old cackling cuts through the loud music and Troy looks like he’s about to ask what’s going on when the music is shut off and Nick grabs Troy by the hand to drag him back towards the kitchen “Just ignore her.”

“But why’d she put that song on?” Troy asks as he’s dragged along like a confused puppy.

“Because she’s a troll,” Nick grumbles. He supposes it could be worse. She could have put on ‘I kissed a girl’ or something else just as bad. In any case, he’s going to be the bigger sibling (hah) and ignore her as he cooks them dinner. He’s still a bit manic and as much of a relief as it was to find out Troy really does want to be... Whatever they are... he still needs to do something to get this energy out.

“And to answer your question from before, I’m still manic. That’s what the whole jittery energy thing with me is. Or it’s being hypomanic, technically. Since I don’t think I’m so tweaked out that I’ll need to be put on meds or whatever to fix it,” he explains as he starts to dig through the fridge for the things to make some kind of food.

“Yeah? Okay… What are you looking for?” Troy asks, clearly opting not to dig further and interrupt Nick’s digging.

“Stuff to make dinner. I need to do something with my hands and all I’ve eaten today are a few cookies,” he explains as he starts pulling out the ingredients to make a quick lasagna. He already has a pot of meat sauce left over from the other night, so he doesn't need to do much work. But it should still be enough to get the last of this energy out of his system.

As he’s setting things up on the counter beside the stove Troy comes up behind him and looks over his shoulder, curiously watching. “Can I ask you something?”

“You just did,” Nick teases. 

“Ha ha ha,” Troy says in a monotone as he steps a little closer so Nick can feel the heat radiating off the other boy’s body. “Seriously, though. Is there anything I can do to help… with the whole manic, triggered thing I mean. Not the cooking. I’m kind of tired of cooking, as often as I do it for me n’ Jake.”

Nick pauses what he’s doing and turns around so his back is to the counter and Troy is right in his personal space. He tips his head back a little to look Troy in the eyes as he answers carefully. “Honestly… Just keep me company? Distract me if I start scratching or chewing on my nails?”

Nodding slightly, Troy wraps his arms around Nick’s waist as he tilts his head down and presses a quick kiss to his lips “I can do that,” he mumbles as he pulls away.

Nick wants to chase after his lips, but he knows himself when he’s like this and he knows he’ll push things too far if he does. So he clears his throat and pulls out of Troy’s arms to turn and go back to fixing dinner.

It kills half an hour, and while it bakes he kicks Alicia off the couch so he and Troy can flop on it and watch the movie Alicia was already watching when they came in. It’s an old one that Nick has seen a million times, but Troy watches like it’s the first movie he’s ever seen. All rapt attention even when the buzzer goes off in the kitchen to let them know dinner is ready.

He makes Alicia pause it long enough for them all to get a plate of food before coming back out to finish the movie as they eat.

It’s nice. Not fighting with Alicia or caving to the urge to use. Having Troy there to curl up with once again when they’re done eating and Alicia has thrown the next movie in the series on.

They stay like that for the rest of the night, Nick and Troy falling asleep curled up together on the couch. Alicia throws a blanket over them and makes sure to shut the blinds before dragging herself down the hall to her own bed.

When they wake up in the morning it’s to find that Alicia left them pancakes and bacon in the oven to keep warm and there’s a note reading that she’s spending the day with her friends at the beach and will be home in time for dinner that night.

Nick and Troy trade amused looks and, after brushing their teeth, they eat the majority of food left by Nick’s sister before going straight back to the couch to listen to music and work on improving Troy’s kissing skills. 

Eventually Troy has to head home, and Nick has to catch up on homework. They make a plan to meet up at school the next day and part with one final, lingering kiss that leaves both boys longing for more.

Before Nick goes to sleep that night he sends Troy a text with a gif of two cartoon characters kissing and smiling cutely. Because he saw it while scrolling through tumblr and he’s a sap.

He gets back a text saying ‘goodnight, Nicky’ with a kiss emoji. It makes him laugh and he says goodnight as well before stuffing his phone under his pillow and letting himself drift off to dream of more nights spent curled up listening to music and sharing sweet kisses in the dark.


End file.
